Kavel 846

Buitenlandse munten - Foreign coins
Kavel 846
Kavel 846 (2)
SOUTH AFRICA, 1 Pond 1874, "Burgers" Pond, with coarse beard, the most important differences between the obverses of the fine and coarse beard are that the coarse beard has coarser points to the beard, and that the 8 of the date 1874 appears to have been double struck. This double struck effect is due to a flaw on the die itself, only 142pcs., a mere 22 of these original 142 which were minted are known to still exist, KM.1.1, SLABBED PCGS GRADED MS61 extremely rare in this quality. Colonial South Africa consisted of disconnected immigrant settlements which used coins of their native countries as well as tokens for money. When gold was discovered in the Transvaal in 1869, it marked a sea change for the areaÔÇÖs inhabitants. The first gold coin was minted in 1874 in extremely limited numbers and suffered from such a poor initial reception that todayÔÇÖs collectors are faced with a serious challenge trying to locate an unimpaired piece. It seems that Thomas François Burgers, fourth president of the Republic, had received a number of suggestions urging him to create a gold coinage. He decided to approach the Birmingham, England, firm of Ralph Heaton and Sons to change the situation. Unfortunately he made the decision on his own, without the approval of his fellow legislators, and it was to prove a fatal error. The Heaton Mint engaged the services of Leonard Wyon, the Royal MintÔÇÖs engraver, who prepared dies showing a portrait of Burgers, who himself supplied the gold specie for the coinage, as well as an elaborate reverse design showing the coat of arms of the fledgling republic. The gold specie used to make these coins was mined in the Transvaal, and BurgersÔÇÖ intention was just that ÔÇö a local use for native ore. The exact number struck is not known, but it is assumed that 837 pieces were made using up the amount of gold given to the mint by Burgers. Once he had them in his hands, Burgers displayed his gleaming gold coins proudly to members of the Volksraad, and waited for their acceptance. But it was not to be. The legislators objected vehemently to BurgersÔÇÖ use of his own image and they soundly rejected the coin which was to become the forerunner of the famed golden Pond, first produced in 1892. But in 1874 the Burgers pond had failed as a commercial idea. Subsequently, most of the mintage was sold to the public at twice face value, and for a number of years they were thought of as nothing more than mere mementoes. The public carried these as pocket pieces, showed them off to friends, drilled holes through some and mounted others on gold chains for jewellery, and finally threw them into drawers or jewellery boxes, where they were forgotten. Few if any South Africans in the 1870s envisioned them as one day being of great value. When the first official gold ponds appeared in 1892, they reminded a small number of people in the ZAR of the earlier pond of 1874, and scattered collectors began looking for examples, knowing next to nothing about the coins. Numismatic interest began in earnest upon the conclusion of the Boer War, with the annexation of South Africa into the British Empire. It gradually became apparent that most Burgers ponds had been damaged or mishandled. So few were available for study that no one realised that two varieties existed until the 1940s, and the first few decades of the 20th century proved the rarity of these coins when not impaired. They became eagerly collected in England and throughout the Commonwealth, as well as in the homeland itself. But most had been lost or damaged, and only a tiny number exist in Mint State today. Nicer pieces seemed to be slightly circulated. Time has proven that any undamaged piece is a miracle of survival, and it is quite likely that some of the finest known pieces were those kept by the very legislators who had dismissed the coins as meaningless back in 1874. What had once offended sensibilities had transformed itself into nothing less than a national treasure.
Start: Bod
Opbrengst: € 42000

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